How can Hikvision achieve long-term success while maintaining stability? The road to digital transformation is a long and arduous one

A conversation with Xu Ximing to deeply analyze the internal logic of Hikvision EBG's digital transformation business.

Security is a "small pond", while urban digitalization and enterprise digitalization business are the "new blue ocean". After nearly 20 years of working in the security "pond", thanks to the support and implementation of AI, the leading Hikvision has been able to sail from the "small pond" of security to the "big blue ocean" of digital business. Hikvision EBG, the business group responsible for Hikvision's promotion of enterprise digital transformation business, maintained the leading growth rate among Hikvision's three major BGs in the first three quarters of this year and was favored by the outside world. What is the internal logic of Hikvision's digital transformation business? What is its competitiveness? Recently, Hikvision Senior Vice President and EBG Head Xu Ximing said in an interview with Leifeng.com AI Digging:

Digital transformation is very different from traditional informatization. Digital transformation is aimed at achieving value, based on scenarios and agile iteration. Digital transformation must fully integrate advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Today, digital transformation must be deeply integrated with business and management, and users must have clear goals in mind.

In the enterprise business, Hikvision used to serve the security department, which is very important to the enterprise, but today enterprises also need to improve quality and efficiency through digital and intelligent means. Now, Hikvision has begun to extend its services to the business and management departments of enterprise users, and gradually penetrated into the core business and management areas of users.

Always being with users and innovating together is one of Hikvision's genes. Users will not be forced to accept the manufacturer's unified solution. Enterprises must have their original intentions and start with the end in mind. The ultimate goal is to provide value to users.

All excellent products are polished step by step. Yunmo is an innovative exploration of Hikvision's enterprise business and has become one of Hikvision's main solutions for serving the digital transformation of large chain enterprise users.

Regarding Hikvision's EBG business, the following is the transcript of the interview, and AI Gold Digging has been sorted and edited without changing the original meaning: Briefly introduce Hikvision's EBG business? Xu Ximing: This business group is mainly aimed at the enterprise and people's livelihood markets. We divide it into 5 industry groups: financial services, energy and metallurgy, industrial and commercial enterprises, smart buildings, culture, education and health. Hikvision EBG will provide users with security prevention, smart Internet of Things, smart applications, data analysis and other services in these five areas. How do you view the role of EBG business in Hikvision in the future? Xu Ximing: It is an important part of the company's business and one of the driving forces for the company's business upgrade. I believe that as the demand for digital transformation in the whole society becomes stronger and stronger, and as the requirements for cost control and coverage of building digital twins become higher and higher, at least in terms of perception intelligence and scene Internet of Things, we have great opportunities.

Compared with PBG and SMBG businesses, what are the differences in market development and technology application of EBG business? Xu Ximing: SMBG will build a closed-loop industrial Internet. PBG has a larger battlefield, a larger pattern, a larger investment, and higher technical requirements. After all, this is a city-level digital transformation. EBG is positioned as a partner for enterprise digital transformation. This business has not been paid attention to by everyone before. With the help of the AI ​​boom in the past two years, it has waited for an opportunity for development. Hikvision's EBG business has grown rapidly in recent years. From your perspective as a manager, is it the team that plays a greater role or is this the general trend? Xu Ximing: It should be said that the team has grasped the general trend. At present, the challenges are still very great, and we still have a lot to improve.

Since you joined Hikvision in September 2016, what changes have you seen in the EBG business you are responsible for in the past four years? Xu Ximing: The transition from "security" to "business", from weak current to IT. In the past, we served the security departments of users, which are very important to enterprises, but today we also need to improve quality and efficiency through digital and intelligent means. Today, we begin to serve the core business management needs of enterprise users. Through digital transformation, we can provide users with more services, such as safe production and remote store inspections. Safe production, remote store inspections... Haven't these needs always existed? Xu Ximing: Yes, but we use technologies such as AI to meet user needs more comprehensively and meticulously.

Does it take a strong technical barrier to meet these needs? In other words, how can Hikvision meet these needs of users? Xu Ximing: 1. Connectivity. I won't go into details about this. The larger the scene and the more devices there are, the higher the requirements for product connectivity. 2. Technical foundation. In recent years, we have made ubiquitous and low-cost AI applications a reality through the AI ​​open platform. Through this self-learning, self-calibration, and self-growth artificial intelligence platform, it can be closely integrated with various IT systems in an open manner to help users turn low-value-density video big data into high-value-density scene digitization. 3. Close to users. I have always had a view that AI applications were first scientific research, and some scientific research companies will be sought after by the capital market.

Next is scenario-based application, which Hikvision has done well, such as helping pig farms order pigs and helping convenience stores count sausages. Finally, there is engineering, which tests the comprehensive implementation capabilities of AI, and not just the capabilities of visual technology. For example, the safe production system we help users build is actually a close combination of visual technology, AI technology, multi-dimensional perception technology and management information system. The implementation of AI requires a combination of software and hardware. In the future, the company that does well in this regard will be more likely to combine the capabilities of AI and IoT with informatization, and support the digital transformation of users through the integration of information and physical objects.

What are your unique insights on digital transformation? How is it fundamentally different from informatization? Xu Ximing: The process of informatization is to promote the online process and then promote scientific decision-making. Generally speaking, it is a process of standardization of operations and online management and control. The digitalization of digital transformation requires mapping the physical world to the digital world and building digital twins. The integrity and timeliness of digital twins affect the effect of digital transformation. In the process of building digital twins, Hikvision's "video + AI" technology can help users realize scene digitization more efficiently. Of course, traditional informatization will still play a very important role in digital transformation, supporting the digitization of business processes and business transactions. Many users have realized the digitization of all parties involved in the enterprise, including users, employees, and upstream and downstream supply chains, through mobile Internet technology and informatization.

At the same time, the Industrial Internet of Things realizes the interconnection of equipment and facilities, and promotes the digitization of production processes and service processes. In this process, Hikvision mainly provides "eyes" for solution providers of the Industrial Internet. Hikvision focuses on scene interconnection. For example, stores, construction sites, classrooms, and workshops are all scenes. How many people are there in the scene, how many equipment are there, whether there are any dangers, whether there are any violations, etc., can all be digitized through perception technology. Through the scene interconnection and facility interconnection, and then combined with the information network, Hikvision has formed the integration of physical and information, forming a complete digital twin.

Then, it is the transformation part of digital transformation. Focusing on scenarios, with user experience and value realization as the core, we will promote the transformation of business models and management models. In this process, perceptual intelligence can make enterprises more sensitive in the fields of market, service, production, supply, etc., and cognitive intelligence can help enterprises gain insight into problems in business management, discover laws, and predict the future. Successful enterprises will also innovate and reshape digital models to find new development models.

What is the difference between these applications and traditional video structuring? Xu Ximing: If we stop at the step of video structuring, we will only realize AI scenario. I think AI engineering should be more important in the future. AI engineering? Xu Ximing: It can also be understood as comprehensive AI application. For example, for store AI applications, first there must be an inspection plan, then there must be inspection targets and inspection methods, and then there will be inspection problems. Inspection templates will be formed for these problems, and inspection reports will be generated. This is a closed loop of work. In the next step, we can even use these data to reflect on the problems and form a management system through the use of various software.